Murphy's Law

Every Nightingale needs a lamp & coffee grinder 

If you have been a long time reader of my blog then you "heard" me mention how I try not to let the gods know I have dead presidents (federal tax return) least the hot water heater starts peeing like a drunk behind the dumpster of the corner club or the car needs a new battery.

Wait for it ... the car did need a new battery because of a short in the wiring. Woods fixed that but we lost the clock & radio.
No hardship there because in this pinch we just use my solar emergency weather radio  on the dash.

Next came a bearing job rod thingy followed by a wheel alignment followed by car insurance note. The money order went out to the great insurance fund in the sky. Our only chariot has been sitting idle in the driveway, transportation needs fulfilled by bicycle, shoe leather express, or carro de publica. No problema it's Spring and we need to burn off the Winter fat.

Then the mother of all creature comforts only overshadowed by indoor plumbing, broke.
In one tenth of a millisecond by the flip of a switch we lost power in roughly 70% of our house. One moment we were all sitting in my new old parlor watching the telly then we weren't. Woodrunner had gotten up to snag a snack from the kitchen and on flipping the switch set into motion yet another M. L. E. (Murphy's Law event) this Spring.

The second story of MOH (my old house) went black along with two of the first floor rooms; the living room & downstairs bedroom. NP, we are preppers we just pulled out some battery operated L.E.D. lanterns then ran an electrical cord to the t.v. Finished watching the movie because it was due back @ the library the next day. By the third day of no power we went old school pulling out Wood's oil lamps.
The upside is that none of the vital outlets that supply the Westinghouse or chest freezer were affected. Oh yeah wait for it ... $3 savings on the electrical bill so far.

So the plan for now is to take a chill pill yeah I wrote it, take a few to regroup. We're working the  bartering angle for electrical work. So far no takers.

No hurry.
We have heat & plenty of lamps; battery, solar, & oil.
Most importantly I have a means to grind & brew coffee.
I might even invite Mr. Murphy in for a cup.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Cow in the Cupboard

Free milk without buying the cow

When I think of a traditional homestead my pop culture inspired imagination often pictures dairy cows on lush green pastures contained within a perfectly picturesque white rail fence, Elsie the Borden Jersey Cow comes to mind.
Sweet smiling with her daisy chain necklace, the symbol of perfect dairy products.

But for those of us who don't have lush green pastures to keep a big doe eyed milker for our personal dairy there is always the more convenient alternative - non-fat powdered milk. Before you wrinkle your nose and mentally make whatever gag like remark that always represents forced Brussels sprouts consumption there are a few advantages of having a cow in the cupboard at your beck & call.

There's is the convenience factor which just can't be appreciated enough least there's a blizzard to remind you that you really don't want to make a midnight milk run.

I use non-fat milk for cooking and baking which frees up fresh milk for drinking, a cost savings. Then there's the added bonus of decreasing the calorie and fat content of a recipe by replacing the regular milk. I also use it to make Greek style yogurt.


I got a good deal on 8 pounds of non-fat milk in month on special offers on Amazon for $39.73 which qualified for free shipping. And as my other swagbucks rewards, this milk is free.


~~ pelenaka ~~

No Fruit 4 You

Free Strawberry bed started from 3 orginal plants bought 11 years ago

3 or 4 days ago our freakishly warm early Spring turned on us. First a very chilly night like a wing man who has forgotten that it's all about moi, then more like a spurred lover giving us a hard frost. Yesterday it was all about a disgruntled wife who has realized that her fun loving grass is greener on the other side of the fence husband, was planning on moving along solo.

Yesterday I awoke to a blanket of wet snow less than an inch which brought us up short.
It really wasn't a great surprise since we all knew that the beach party weather of  last week was a freak of nature, "Little girl you want some eye candy"?

The Strawberries I'm not so much worried about because they have the resiliency of a child who grew up in a broken home. Short daylight hours & heavy foot traffic that doesn't always stay on the walk, this bed just keeps on surviving.

No warmth felt from the stacked stone cellar

As you can see Woodsrunner, has been busy putting in next year and the year after firewood. Every few days he works on splitting a round. 

The early warm Spring not to mention a relatively warm Winter meant that we had just gotten away with enough of wood to keep us warm. Currently we are burning windfall gleaned off the city's hell strips or gifted from neighbor's yards. Annie a few houses over actually thought enough to box & toss a tarp over the pile she gave us. I get allot of looks as I pull the garden cart behind me walking around the hood. 

NP, free heat can smooth over any of the hurt feelings I might have.

 

No signs of frost damage perhaps being an antique variety is the key.
This tree a Sops of Wine from Miller's Nursery in Canandaigua, New York. It has yet to give us fruit I have despite this recent cold snap. The fact that there's no blossoms may be the saving grace.

Climbing Pink Rose originally planted over a hundred years ago.

Pink Rose Bush seems to be very hardy. 
My neighbor behind me LaShonda, had tossed it over the fence in my direction when she heard me hanging laundry last Summer. Just as the root ball went up in the air clearing the peak of the garage she gave me a shout out. I'm glad she didn't see me hit the dirt. She kept half replanted that along a fence line. I potted this half up until I can afford to make a trellis for under the kitchen window. I think that a view of pale pink roses @ the kitchen sink will compliment my gray & white kitchen. 

Looking a little like Sanford & Son despite the new layer of mulch

Earlier this morning when I looked out the kitchen window @ my two Peach trees all I could hear was the voice of the actor who played the Soup Nazi in the classic Seinfield episode, "No fruit for you ... NO FRUIT FOR YOUUUUU"! 

My plan was to go down to the furniture store and snag some plastic wrapping outta the dumpsters then wrap my precious Peach trees. Yeah I know ... but have you ever had a sweet juicy Peach rip from a tree grown in your own backyard. Then don't judge me ...

All I can hope for is that my Peach trees Frost variety will survive & produce because locally the fruit orchards were hard hit. I didn't can as much fruit as I should have, poor planning on my part. If I had then this glitch in food production could be easily rode out until 2013 or even 2014 harvest. 

Now I need to come up with an alternate plan to put fruit in on the family menu.

1. Schedule time to go foraging for wild berries I slacked last year.
2. Scope out new opportunities a.k.a. make contact for gleaning of any available urban fruit.
3. Increase garden fruit plantings such as melons to provide fresh fruit then all tree fruit can be preserved. 
4. Consider stocking commercially caned fruit (although expensive since we would need low sugar/no sugar).

~~ pelenaka ~~

I Save With YaySave

My 1st order from YaySave was over a year ago. I ordered dish washing liquid, Ivory Soap for laundry soap making, and hand sanitizer. Since then I've ordered a few more times - free shipping & fast service on quality products.

This past Saturday, I bought Charmin Ultra Strong tp - double rolls 2 ply 12 pack for $10.25. A good deal so I bought three packages, you can never have enough TP. The third only ended up costing me 25¢ or a total of $1.73 per double roll for the whole lot. 

I had a $5 credit from a previous order on YaySave which I took full advantage of on this order. Then I subtracted the upcoming $5 Amazon gift card that I'll redeem with a portion of the 500 swagbucks that was a promotional offer on YaySave this past week, (with a $20 purchase). 

Then on Sunday I remembered that my Mom would soon be needing a tissue run so I ordered her the Puffs special. Then I remembered that my very athletic teenage daughter has sneakers that can get up and walk on their own. I ordered her a can of Lysol disinfectant spray. That order also qualified me for another 500 Swag bucks. My 1000 Swag Bucks were deposited in my swagbucks account on Tuesday! 

                                                                       

Wednesday my order from YaySave was delivered to my door. Not bad @ all ... free shipping ... $10 worth of Amazon gift cards earned (+ an extra 100 swagbucks) all in 4 days from start to finish!

This week's YaySave's promotional offers are earn 100 Swag Bucks on Aveeno, Boon, and Olay products. I'm a Premium member ($19.99 for a full year) so I get free shipping, along with weekly special deals. 

YaySave also has a certified section where products are always a minimum of 25% less than other online competitors who's prices are also posted directly on YaySave's site- makes for easy comparison shopping. Each week the site focuses on a new brand as their bonus offering @ great price. 

Good customer service, fast (free shipping for premium members), and all the convenience of shopping in my pajamas for great deals on products that we use. 

YaySave also has a great referral program. If any of your referrals go premium you receive a sawbucks ($10) not to be confused with swagbucks, lol. But the real moolah making deal is that you can earn up to a C note ($100) per referral by collecting on every purchase. 

Even if you decide not to sign up under me using my referral link I still promise to share with you special E-codes for extra YaySave deals. Because after all, it's all about saving those green backs on products you really use.

Login or sign up with YaySave then to to "my accounts ". 
Your 1st special E-code for $2 is 94166d017e4caa0c922af359883ee4ef - Good til this Sunday the 25th. 


Stack the $2 E-code credit you just got with this weeks promo Spend $50 get $15 in YaySave Credit = $17 in totally free products. Stack those extra savings when you buy any products on YaySave that earn you swagbucks. Use swagbucks to earn paypal cards to pay for your Yaysave purchases.
Seventeen smackeroos without clipping coupons or throwing on street clothes to go shopping.


While you're @ it stop by this weeks giveaway enter via fb or email for their double C note a $200 valued baby product. 


Might be your lucky day, after all you just got $2.




~~ pelenaka ~~


P.S. - check out YaySave's twitter feed for another great code worth 50 cents, every penny counts. 

Cold Frame = Hot Love

Yeah, that's right when your a homesteader be it urban or rural it's gifts of cold frames and the like that tells you your man loves you. 

Loves you Hot.

This is the second cold frame Woodsrunner has built me. After 5+ years of marriage originating on yahoo singles (no he wasn't a online serial killer), he apparently loves me even more than when he built the first cold frame. 

Baby has Wood

Hubby's newest design makes the center height twice as high to accommodate marigolds (bug control) and  taller greens such as Swiss Chard. PVC pipe & wood was all scavenged from past projects around the urban homestead.

Early Spring Beige 

In place waiting on upholstery plastic to be stapled down. Red Onions made it through our mostly balmy Winter. So did the carrots which were some of the sweetest, most delicate tasting I have ever had.

Good haul ... if I was Tom Thumb. Neglected to use an object (like a quarter) for size reference but lets just say that rinsing them off greatly decreased the harvest.

Broccoli or rather 6 month old Broccoli starts but I did keep them alive through a warm Winter.

Surviving & flourishing are two vastly different concepts. Consider us starved if we had had to depend on the garden for total Winter nourishment.

It's been in the high 70s to record breaking 80 degrees as of late but I'm sure that there is one last howrah from Old Man Winter still yet to come. Maybe I'll still get to try out my new cold frame.

A hunk hunk burning love ...




~~ pelenaka ~~

Free Canning Jars - Blessings on the Curb

Bit of elbow grease makes for a new opportunity for food preservation. 

I scored 5 boxes of tall Ball Quilted Jelly Jars last week the day before my street was scheduled for trash pick up. The boxes were piled up in front of a neighbor's house along with glassware, books, and some clothing. Neighbor who I had only really waved to on my travels was purging her father's apartment contents due to his recent death. She was on her front porch taking a smoke so I was able to ask if she didn't mind me rummaging around the huge pile on the hell strip. That's when she told me he had died of complications due to diabetes.

I offered my condolences and thanks for the jars and for the first time we chatted a bit. She mentioned how she always saw me riding around the neighborhood. Then spoke about how much in the past she enjoyed riding. I gave her my card and told her to call sometime we could go for a ride. She didn't seem too enthusiastic perhaps when I drop off a few filled jelly jars I can nudge her to go for a short ride.
When your ready I told her as I pedaled away with the jars bungee corded to my bike rack. She gave a wave with the hand that held her Indian Pride cig and gently rocked on the porch swing.

Two of the 12 packs boxes were filled with what was peaches in heavy syrup and perhaps pureed pears.
No labeling but I wasn't planning on eating the contents anyways, it was all about the glass.

Two boxes worth went to my bbgf (barter buddy girlfriend) as an early Mother's Day gift. The other 3 twelve packs down to the cellar. I need to do some serious canning this year especially since I slacked off last year.

I get allot of stares when I haul cargo home on my bike, not so much when I'm just out & about. It always pays to have the means to carry stuffs on a bike. Being street level usually results in good opportunities and the chance to make new friends.


~~ pelenaka ~~